Adam and I are two of only a handful of people that have the proper perspective on things. We know how difficult it is to work with the hotels. Let me give you an example:
- this year at my show, the Florida Audio Expo, Peter from Magico arrived a day early and wanted to set up. I called the hotel and spoke with my POC to see if we could get the room. She said, “the contract says you do not get the room until tomorrow.” I said, “yes, yes, yes, I understand that, but the room is just sitting there empty!” She said, “your contract says you get the room tomorrow.”
This is just one of 100’s of examples. They are by the book, strictly by the contract.
In all likelihood, the Axpona Exhibitor contract closely mirrors the contract JDE has with the hotel. As the organizer, they are caught in the middle.
Given that JD Events manages many other trade shows (they are all listed on their website), they are in the same or similar predicament with several other of their shows.
I totally understand the unfortunate circumstances for the exhibitors. Some, like VAC, take large expensive rooms at Axpona and are out thousands and thousands more than the standard room. Others, smaller vendors, make this one big expenditure per year. To lose that with no upside really hurts.
But let me tell you all a story.....when I was growing up in Canada, there were hockey rinks on every corner. I started playing hockey at the age of 4 and at the age of 51 today, I still play three times a week. Finding a rink to play at in Canada was no problem at all. Now that I live in Florida, there is a hockey arena 20 minutes away from my house. But the next closest rink is over an hour away. So, frankly, we don’t have a lot of choices. When all of this Coronavirus stuff went down, we had just recently paid our $500 for the season. The rink shut. The ice was taken out to conserve costs. All games cancelled. My teammates started screaming for their money back. But my perspective was different: nobody could have seen this coming. Nobody could have predicted this. I was happy for the rink to keep my money (remember, I play in 3 leagues!) if it helps them stay afloat and reopen again one day so I can keep playing hockey. My perspective was: the bigger picture.
This is a bad situation all around and frankly, if I was in JDE’s situation, I may not have a lot of options except the most drastic corporate measure of all. Adam will tell you, this is a tough business and putting on a show is a lot more work than anyone could imagine.
